TATE LIVERPOOL

Tracey Emin's controversial 'My Bed' challenges the boundaries of art. Featuring artfully littered condoms and sanitary pads that provoke both outrage and shock, the artist is still now, 18 years later, renowned for this single piece. 'My Bed' is one of few pieces that you can only begin to understand once you have physically seen it. The smell of the brown stained bed sheets and ageing newspaper from September 1998 add to the reality of the piece, that this (at one point) was where the artist was living. The intensity and sheer rawness of the art is why you need to see it to understand it, an image from a google search simply can't bring you the same reaction. Perhaps its knowing that Tracey Emin has stood in that room and re built the sculpture herself that creates these intense emotions, or could it be that it is just good art?